Activity Hub

Hongqiao is Shanghai’s fast growing center of business and transportation

By Tamsin Cocks

2017-09-15T02:50:14+00:00

Downtown Shanghai is a fascinating spectacle – two time-warped cityscapes divided by the snaking Huangpu River. On the west bank, The Bund’s magnificent colonial architecture forms an impressive façade to Puxi, the historic and cultural center, while across the river futuristic skyscrapers signal the gleaming new metropolis of Pudong.

The younger eastern district has captured the lion’s share of modern business activity, thanks to key infrastructure and financial institutions such as Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone and two of three Shanghai Stock Exchanges, plus international facilities including the immense Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre.

But the landscape is set to shift again as a new locus of business and transport starts to emerge. Back in 2009, the government began planting seeds for a new international business hub to ease the pressures on Pudong. Fast-forward almost ten years and the Hongqiao central business district is starting to blossom.